Vivianne Miedema and Andries Jonker are ready to battle with England in Zürich tonight as the EURO 2025 group stage begins to near conclusion.
It has been jokingly called the ‘Sarina Wiegman derby’: matches between the Netherlands and England. Netherlands head coach Jonker and striker Miedema talked to the press ahead of tonight’s Group D fixture.
Wiegman has led both the Netherlands (2017) and England (2022) to Euros victory. Tomorrow, the two nations meet. Wiegman still coaches England, while her home country is now led by Dutchman Jonker.
Wiegman ‘wants to beat us and we want to beat her’
Miedema sees similarities between the two coaches. “Both of them are crazy about the game. I would be able to call both of them at night to discuss tactics, no problem.” Both of the coaches love playing a possession-based type of football.
Jonker wants to beat England, no matter what. “You don’t want to hurt your friends. I would feel for Sarina if we won. But that’s football. She wants to beat us and we want to beat her.”
But he is realistic about the Netherlands’ chances against the Lionesses. “They are a team that are very well organised. That’s thanks to Sarina. They have an excellent team with world class players. They will be very dangerous.”
So is Miedema: “England have really not forgotten how to play football [after their loss against France]. It’s going to be really tough. We know each other’s qualities, so it’s going to be a very tactical game.”
Miedema ‘can’t complain’ about her fitness
The Netherlands are in a good position to reach the quarter-finals, having won their first game against Wales 3-0.
Miedema says “she can’t complain” about her fitness ahead of this crucial match. She has only recently come back from an injury that took her out since April. She hasn’t lost her goalscoring form, scoring 3 goals in 2 matches. Her latest – what some would call – banger being a fine strike from just outside the box, marking her 100th in an Oranje shirt.
Ahead of the EUROs, there were also concerns about Bundesliga top scorer Lineth Beerensteyn’s fitness. She made her first minutes against in the Netherlands’ opening EUROs match against Wales, scoring a goal that was disallowed for offside. When asked on her fitness, he would not be drawn to enlighten the press present in the conference room.
The Wiegman derby kicks off tonight at 17:00 BST.
